Rise of The Domain
by Spirals95
Summary: #16 and #17 of the Techorse series. A waitress in Ponyville named Limpwing is acting very odd whenever she gets off of work, and Techorse is determined to figure out what she does when nopony is looking. But this soon turns out to be a mistake, which might even threaten Equestria's security!
1. Part I

Rise of The Domain: Part 1

Techorse Series: #16

By Spirals95

* * *

Greasy Bob's diner was a small eatery in Ponyville notable for great service, a large menu, and good portion sizes for the prices. The red-roofed building didn't really seem to stand out amongst the other colonial homes of the town, but the inside was certainly different. It was decorated with pictures from the construction of other towns in Equestria, most of them black and white photographs, others paintings. Several simple wooden tables were arranged inside the restaurant with no apparent order to them whatsoever. Each one had a blue and white checkered tablecloth on it, the traditional salt and pepper shaker, and a box containing plenty of crisp brown paper napkins. Folding metal chairs were scattered about these tables, giving the place a messy, but strangely welcoming appeal. There was never a hostess in charge, and customers could simply seat themselves at any open table. It was even encouraged to team up with other patrons if there weren't any open tables, as the check was usually not large enough to warrant arguments. Bob's was the perfect place for having fun with friends and filling your stomach for less than 10 bits.

The diner was starting to fill up during the lunch rush when Techorse decided to go grab a bite to eat. He hadn't planned on eating at the diner, but had gone through town on a walk with his robot, PAL, and decided to stop in. Finding a small square table towards the back of the wide room, the colt sat himself down in the chair closer to the doorway of the restaurant. PAL took a seat across from him at the same table, and laughed mechanically to himself as he noticed the looks he got from the ponies dining near him. He heard them whispering amongst themselves and said quietly to Techorse with teasing in his voice,

"Master, look! They're probably trying to guess what I am."

"Most ponies know who you are by now." replied his inventor, "They just never expect you to make an appearance like this. You spend way too much time in the castle."

"_I_ spend way too much time?" asked the machine accusingly, "You spent a week working on a new version of that gadget of yours, master! I don't think Miss Sparkle or any of her friends saw any of you during that time!"

"Yeah, that's true." He sighed, "That's why I needed to get out for a walk today. I promise that I'm going to be spending my free time outside for the next week, though."

"Here comes our waitress." pointed PAL, extending a metal finger at her, "We'll have to discuss this later."

Techorse turned and smiled at the mare and said, "Hello, Limpwing!"

Limpwing was a pony who seemed to slip in and out of being noticed in town. She was an azure blue pegasus pony with a jagged mane cut, the center of which was a darker cobalt blue, and the outer hair being a robin's egg blue. Her eyes were bright crimson red, and her cutie mark resembled a single glowing star, maybe even a supernova. She carried herself in a strong, positive manner that could make anyone feel welcome. Limpwing worked one shift a day at the diner, but it was unknown what she did with the rest of her time. No one bothered to ask her about her day, to the average resident she was just a simple waitress without much of a life outside of her work. Yet still, she had a friendly attitude and a decent smile on most of the time. Techorse had spent some time talking to her after work, and had developed a friendship over time.

"Hey Tech!" she said cheerfully, taking out a pad of paper from the apron she was wearing, "What will you and your robot have?"

The green colt flicked his brown tail and answered, "I'll take the spaghetti and garlic bread."

Limpwing wrote down the order on her pad and asked, "Anything to drink?"

"Milk, please."

"You got it! How about you, PAL?"

PAL answered politely, "Miss Limpwing, I don't eat food. But if I could have a glass of water for coolant, that'd be really nice. This hot day has me overheated!"

"That's fine. I'm sure Bob wouldn't mind." She said, "I'll be back with your food soon enough Tech."

"Thanks Limpwing." Said Techorse back, smiling. She left the two sitting at the table to pick up their conversation.

Turning back to PAL, he questioned, "So what was this about me being anti-social again?"

"I didn't say you were anti-social, Master." reminded PAL, "I was pointing out that once in a while, you come up with an idea for an invention and then work on it without taking any breaks, often sacrificing a chance to be with your friends for it!"

Techorse sat back in his chair and sighed, "Yeah, I do like to finish inventions once I get going on them. Tell you what, next time I do that, let me know and I'll make sure to take time off for my friends."

With a mechanical buzz, PAL nodded and answered, "It's a deal."

"What sort of a deal?" asked Limpwing, who had returned, placing the drinks and meals in front of the duo from a tray on her back.

"Oh," laughed Techorse, "PAL and I are discussing strategies for getting out of the house more."

The robot nodded, picked up the glass of water in front of him, and poured the contents into his mechanical jaw line. He then breathed out a cloud of steam, which dissipated quickly into the air.

"Ah, much better." He said calmly, slumping back in his seat.

"Anyways." continued Techorse, "I'm hoping to spend more time with my friends once my work is done, instead of completing new inventions."

"Sounds good." Responded Limpwing, "Lemme know if either of you need anything else!"

Techorse watched her turn to take an order from another table, and then went back to his spaghetti. With a click from his saddle, his thin robotic arms emerged and picked up the nearby fork. He twirled himself a large bite from the plate, and lifted the ball of noodles to his mouth. Suddenly, the door at the front of the diner slammed open, and the pasta slid off of the utensil and back on top of the mountain of spaghetti. Techorse frowned in disappointment and turned his neck back to see who had entered so violently. His face went from annoyance to shock as he saw Captain Arbiter standing in the doorway. Today, the white stallion was wearing his black cape as usual, but also appeared to have two small gray saddlebags on underneath. His normally all-black eyepatch had been improved as it now bore a red silhouette of his axe-shaped cutie mark. The pony was much larger than any of the other restaurant patrons, and he smirked as his presence caused the normally chatty diners to settle down and stare.

The Captain walked over to the single-seat table directly to the left of Techorse and sat down, picking up the menu with his front hooves.

"Captain Arbiter?" asked Techorse, "What are you doing here?"

The stallion dropped his menu and answered with a mocking tone, "Well for a minute there I was worried we were both going to eat our lunches and not speak at all. I'm here to eat while I'm on break in Ponyville, Techorse."

"It's just that…"

"Just what?" continued Arbiter, rolling his one good eye in contempt, "You actually thought I came here to _attack_ you or something? Please! I'm here for a meal, not a fight."

PAL grabbed his master's head and turned it to face his.

"Master!" he whispered, "Isn't this the stallion who tried to cut off your head?"

He nodded slowly, but whispered back in comfort, "Yeah, it's him. He doesn't hate me anymore, PAL. He's a good pony now, so he's not dangerous anymore."

Techorse frowned when he noticed that Arbiter was staring at Limpwing when she came to take his order.

"Well, maybe he's just not dangerous anymore."

"Huh, well hello Arbiter!" said Limpwing to the Captain, "Nice to see you here!"

"Hello sweetheart." Said Arbiter smoothly, "I'll have a glass of water, and the open-face mushroom sandwich for lunch."

"Coming right up!" answered Limpwing, turning around and walking back to the kitchen. Arbiter leaned over a bit and took in the view of her, smiling with intent. Limpwing knew Arbiter was staring at her rear end, but she didn't care: usually getting stared at meant a big tip was coming! Techorse, however, was absolutely furious at Arbiter's obvious lack of decency, and decided it was time to pay a visit to his "old friend." Grabbing his plate of spaghetti, he carried it over to Arbiter's table and set it down. With some anger in his motions, Techorse then turned and dragged his chair up to the table. He didn't care if he wasn't invited, he just wanted to make sure the Captain didn't get away with what he saw was wrong.

"Something wrong lad?" chuckled Arbiter at the colt's strange behavior.

Techorse took a bite of his pasta and shook his head.

"Just wanted to catch up with you, Arby." He lied through a mouth full of chewed noodles.

Arbiter nodded slightly and said, "I'm here for three days on vacation. I've bought a penthouse in that mansion up in the mountains. I figured it would be nice to spend my vacation time with the simple ponies of this town. Sometimes I just can't stand how stuck up the residents of Canterlot are."

"Yeah, I can imagine." agreed Techorse, shoving a piece of garlic toast into his mouth.

"But anyways, I have yet to get a look at the inside of your castle. You wouldn't mind if I stopped in, would you?"

Techorse swallowed the bread almost entirely whole before answering, "Of course you can show up! But my robot PAL over there doesn't trust you. After all…"

Arbiter looked at the machine. PAL, being a six foot tall metal powerhouse, was quite intimidating unless you got to know him. The robot crossed his arms and shot the captain a nasty look that almost made him cringe.

"Yes, I know." responded Arbiter, "He has a good reason not to trust me."

"Oh, Techorse." interrupted Limpwing, "You joined with Arbiter?"

"Yeah." He answered as Limpwing set the steaming plate of mushrooms in front of the Captain, "I just wanted to talk with him."

Arbiter cut the conversation short and said, "Wow, this looks amazing! Thank you so much, uh…"

"Limpwing."

"Limpwing. I really like that name." said Arbiter, as she turned to leave.

"By the way!" he called out. Arbiter smiled when Limpwing turned around to face him. He continued, "I just got finished telling Techorse here that I've bought a penthouse in the mountains. Would you like to join me there tonight to have a look at my sword collection?"

Limpwing refused to look disgusted, and said, "Thanks Captain, but as Tech here would tell you, I already have plans for tonight."

Then without another word, she went back to her work. Techorse took this opportunity to give Arbiter a smile indicating that he had lost the imaginary argument going on between the two of them. But what Arbiter said next made Techorse's blood boil.

"No matter. Having other plans can be fixed with a couple hundred bits."

Techorse slammed his robotic fists on the table and said loudly, "Alright Arbiter, I put up with your hitting on Limpwing, but now you've _crossed the line_!"

Out of anger, he took a wild swing with one of his fists, which Arbiter ducked. The gray saddlebags opened up to reveal the two magical gauntlets Arbiter kept with him, and they activated and shot out at Techorse. The diner patrons screamed as the two colts got into a scuffle in the middle of the restaurant, and several of them took cover under the tables for fear of one of the males throwing an object. PAL got up from his seat and rushed over to attempt to calm his master down before he made an embarrassment of himself, but on the inside, the robot knew it was far too late.

The commotion outside of the kitchen drew the attention of Limpwing and her boss. Greasy Bob was an overweight earth pony with an ironically white as snow coat. His thick, shiny black mane was probably the true source of his name, as it seemed he used tons of hair gel in it to keep it perked up in a curve the way he did. His cutie mark was three bottles of cooking oil in a triangular pattern, and his hooves had the "ruffled" cut seen on many earth pony males his age. Bob looked rather angry about the amount of noise and disturbance in his restaurant, and burst out of his office to see what was going on.

In the middle of the room, Techorse and Arbiter were comically at each other's throats. Arbiter's gauntlets were wrapped firmly around Techorse's neck, and the inventor had also managed to lock his robotic hands around Arbiter's. They were both grunting and shaking each other in rage. But once they saw Greasy Bob staring at them in shock, they quickly released each other. Techorse looked at the floor and retracted his arms quickly as Arbiter put his gauntlets back in his saddlebags.

"What the hay is wrong with you two?" asked Limpwing angrily.

Techorse replied, "Arbiter was being rude towards you, and I wanted to stop him!"

Limpwing groaned, "I can handle myself, Techorse! I don't need you to barge in and be the big stallion here."

Greasy Bob's angry expression dimmed slightly, but failed to completely disappear. He walked over to Arbiter and said, "So who's this wacko who's been hittin' on you, anyways?"

"Captain Arbiter Axechop." grunted the stallion, "Princess Celestia's captain of the guard."

The fat manager immediately seemed a bit upset over offending the high ranking officer, but to no surprise on Limpwing's part, Bob shouted,

"Oh yeah? Well this is _my_ restaurant, Captain! You gotta obey the rules like everypony else and not choke the other customers!" Arbiter reached up with a hoof and wiped Bob's spittle off of his cheek. Anger burned in his eyes as Bob continued,

"Don't treat my waitress like an object either."

Techorse snickered at Arbiter's misfortune. Sadly for him, this attracted Bob's attention.

"And as for you!" he said while turning to face Techorse, "I know you're the richest colt in town, but no amount of money is gonna save you from getting booted out of here unless you shape up."

"Oh I highly doubt that." muttered PAL as he rolled his optical sensor eyes, understanding the concept of greed.

"Don't make me put up a 'no robots allowed' sign!" screamed Bob as he span around, apparently overhearing the comment. PAL might have been the tallest occupant of the room, but that yelling made him feel as if he was only 3 inches high. The robot carefully backed away from the furious colt.

"Look, Mr. Bob, I'm sorry." Said Techorse slowly, "I was only trying to help. I'll pay for any damages or losses today."

Bob let out a deep breath, and then said in a much softer voice, "It's alright, you didn't break anything. Just pay your tabs, and go. But I don't want to see both of you in this restaurant at the same time again."

"Don't worry." huffed a very offended Arbiter, "I never plan on coming back here anyways." With a swish of his cloak, he turned around and left the eatery, dropping a handful of gold bits on the floor behind him. Limpwing moved over to the money and started to count it out against the cost of Arbiter's meal, hoping something would be left for a tip. Techorse also paid his tab, and tipped what he always tipped any server, 20%. He still felt a little bit guilty about his part in causing a fight in the restaurant. But as he made his way out of the door, he kept inside the fact that he still blamed Arbiter for the majority of what happened. Techorse just couldn't tolerate a colt who didn't treat mares with the respect he knew they wanted.

After exiting the diner, Techorse nudged PAL with his front leg and ordered, "Follow Arbiter PAL, he didn't get a date with Limpwing, so chances are he's going to go bug Fluttershy next."

"Alright master, I'll make sure Fluttershy stays safe." He said, running off after the black cape in the distance.

* * *

After sending PAL off on his "mission" to stop Arbiter from chasing Fluttershy, Techorse saw Limpwing about to leave the diner on her lunch break. He decided to talk to her and try to apologize for all the trouble he had caused.

"Hey, Limpwing?" he called softly, walking up to her.

"What's wrong Tech?" she asked, making eye contact with him.

He looked at the cobblestone road below him and said, "Sorry about everything. I didn't mean to get all worked up in your defense."

The mare smiled gracefully, "Oh it's fine, that's just who you are. All you need to remember is that I can handle myself, ok?"

"I'll keep that in mind." He said, cheering up.

"Now if you'll excuse me," she said, "I have a break to go on. We can talk again after work tonight." Limpwing snapped a pair of flight goggles that she kept with her around the top of her head. Each lens was made of clear plastic, and was much larger than each of her eyes. The frame was a solid silver color, and the long dark black strap held them snuggly against her head, squishing the top of her mane back.

Techorse nodded in agreement, "Sounds great."

Limpwing then trotted away from him, exposing her injured wing. The damaged limb was her namesake, which confused many ponies into thinking she had been born with it. The base of it was bent at an odd angle, and only the top medical experts could tell that it was a childhood injury as opposed to a birth defect. Because of this, she much preferred to walk than fly to various places, even though flight was perfectly possible for her. Techorse had only known her for a few weeks, but he wanted to see what Limpwing's personal life was like. He knew it was none of his business, but he also knew he wouldn't really learn much about the mysterious pegasus pony just by talking to her for an hour after her work each night. Techorse's saddle opened up, and the inventor switched to his turbofans, two high-powered helicopter rotors designed to allow him to fly, albeit slower than most pegasi. He followed Limpwing by carefully weaving through the buildings of Ponyville without being spotted, and was led to her apartment. Techorse waited for her to enter her home, and then he landed on the roof of the building and waited patiently. Ten minutes later, Limpwing emerged again, this time with a pair of saddlebags tied around her waist. She made a loose turn to the right and started walking for her next stop.

"_She just finished her lunch, but she has 30 minutes left on her break._" Thought Techorse, "_I wonder what she's going to do with the rest of the time?_"

* * *

He continued to shadow his friend across town, leading to Applejack's farm. Hiding inside one of the apple trees growing in the orchard, Techorse carefully looked on as Limpwing looked over the top of the fence by leaning on it with her front legs. She was watching Applejack interact with her little sister as they were working amongst the trees.

"Apple Bloom, what did you do with Big Macintosh's paint brushes?" she demanded, giving her sister a stern look.

The foal defended herself, "I just borrowed 'em! I was gonna give 'em right back as soon as I was done with them, I swear!"

Applejack shook her head, "Borrowin' without asking is the same thing as stealing, and the Apples don't steal. Now go inside and apologize to your brother."

Apple Bloom's ears drooped, and she obeyed her sister quietly. Techorse had a look back at Limpwing.

"_Now that they're done talking_." He thought, "_Limpwing's probably going to walk up and ask Applejack if she can buy a bushel of apples. She probably shops in her free time, like a lot of ponies._"

To his surprise though, Limpwing sat down against the fence, and took out a pad of paper and a pencil. She seemed to be taking notes on the chewing out that Applejack had just delivered.

50 feet away, Limpwing was writing down the information Techorse suspected;

"Applejack: element of Honesty. Applejack seems to be so infused with her element that she even considers borrowing without permission to be the same as theft. Previously, the subject only seemed to believe in avoiding direct stealing. Now it's apparent that she holds her Element so closely that she will get angry at any pony who does anything underhooved."

Limpwing finished taking her note, and then put the pencil and paper back into her saddlebags before continuing to walk. Techorse knew she only had ten minutes left on her break, and so she would probably go back to the diner directly. He mulled over what he had seen for a minute, before the tree he was sitting in shuddered violently. Techorse screamed and fell from the shaking tree, landing on the ground hard. Apples soon followed him, and filled the baskets surrounding the tree.

"Oh shoot, sorry Techie!" gasped Applejack, having bucked the tree without noticing him.

"It's not your fault." He grunted as he stood up and shook himself off of the dirt, "You don't usually have to check your trees for guests like that."

The country pony brushed the last bit of dust off of Techorse with her front leg and then asked, "What were you doin' in one of my trees anyways?"

"Watching Limpwing take notes on your yelling." He answered, "She's the waitress at Greasy Bob's."

"The trees are for growin' apples Tech, not for spyin' on ponies." scolded Applejack, "I saw that mare takin' notes, but it's none of your business."

"It's just that she appears to have no personal life, so I wanted to figure out where all her free time was going!" defended Techorse, "Don't you think that's a little bit odd that she never seems to be around town on weekends, or after work?"

"Maybe, but ah don't know Limpwing close. She could have been doin' anything writin' down things in that paper. Tech, didja ever think that maybe she just likes to be alone a lot?"

Techorse thought about what Applejack had said, and sighed heavily. His ears drooped in sadness, "Maybe she does. I'm always sticking my muzzle where it doesn't belong."

Applejack nudged him with a curled leg to get him to lighten up, "Not always, but I swear Techie, some of Twilight's paranoia has rubbed off on ya!" she laughed.

Techorse's face perked back up and he said, "I'm supposed to meet Limpwing after she's done work today. I'm more likely to find out more about her if I convince her to let me tag along to whatever she does after work!"

"Now that's a whole lot better than spyin' on her." agreed Applejack, "Now sorry to cut ya off, but I gotta clear this acre by tonight!"

Techorse sprouted his turbofans from his battle saddle and hovered in the air, "Alright Applejack, see you later!" He flew away to leave her to her work. Secretly though, he was still suspicious of Limpwing's strange writing. It was very odd for a pony to just write down what his friends were up to. But he let the thoughts go, knowing he'd probably find out that night.

* * *

When Limpwing finally got off of work, it was quite late. Due to the huge number of customers that had shown up for dinner unexpectedly, she had been forced to work way past closing time. It was now 10 at night, and the stars were clearly visible. The only sound of the quiet town square was of chirping crickets, as most of the town's residents had gone back home for the night. Limpwing stood underneath of the street light outside of the diner, waiting for Techorse to arrive. She was only going to wait a short while before simply assuming that he had dropped the meeting due to how late she was. But after a few minutes, he walked around from around the corner of the restaurant and started talking to her,

"Hey! Glad to see you're finally off of work."

The mare nodded, "Busy night, but we finally served everypony and washed all the dishes. So what do you want to talk to me about, Tech?"

Techorse pointed at her with his front leg, "I actually wanted to hang out with you, and do whatever you usually do on the weekends."

Suddenly, Limpwing seemed to take on a bit of a nervous tone of voice.

"Oh well, I don't think that's going to work. I'm really busy."

But the colt, to her misfortune, countered with, "Tomorrow is Saturday, and I know you don't work on the weekends. I just want to find out what you do for fun." Techorse began to notice how often Limpwing appeared to shift her eyes during the conversation.

"I just get some physical activity, and sleep most of the day." She explained, "I'm always crashed after working all week for so long."

"Maybe it's time to kick back and relax then!" suggested Techorse, "Want to come back to my castle and play some games?"

"What do you have?" asked Limpwing, lightening up a little.

The robotic hands emerged from the saddle on his back, and Techorse counted off the games on his robotic fingers while looking on the sky, "I have Classic Golemtech, Powergamemare, Pipe Master, Adventures of The Mind, and Cooperation Castle 2."

"I've played a few of those, and they're pretty fun. But I really just need to get going tonight. I have so much to do for tomorrow," said Limpwing.

"Like what?" he asked.

Limpwing began to weaken in voice again, "It's private, ok?"

Faking anger, she spurted out, "Look, is there something you actually want to talk about, or are you wasting my time?"

Techorse backed up one step and said, "I just wanted to do something with you as friends. But I guess if you're really that busy, I can't keep you here. Have a good night."

Limpwing pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes and bid him goodnight before attempting to fly. Her injured wing still carried her enough into the sky for the pegasus to drift away into the darkness, although her flight pattern dipped occasionally. Of course, Techorse most certainly had plans to break Applejack's advice and follow her. But he waited a good five minutes before walking in the direction she saw her fly.

* * *

Eventually he found Limpwing peeking from behind a bush outside of the library. As the inventor-turned-detective had suspected, the azure mare was taking notes again on her pad while looking into the window of the tree home. This voyeuristic behavior was so odd for any pony, even one as mysterious as Limpwing. Techorse knew that she was up to something.

The pony in the bush took off her flight goggles completely and placed them gently behind herself on the stone road behind her. She watched Twilight Sparkle indoors, reading a book on how to take care of edible houseplants. She was standing in the middle of the room, and was reading the brown-covered book carefully. To her right on her desk was a tiny sprout in a terra-cotta pot. Using a quick telepathy spell, Twilight picked up a watering can and gave the thirsty young plant a long drink. The purple unicorn then set the watering can down on the floor and stared at the plant for a few seconds. It was very tempting to her to use a magic spell to force the plant to grow quickly, but she had a bad experience in the past with using a rapid plant growth spell, and was determined to be patient to let the plant grow. Her assistant Spike entered the room from the second-floor staircase and asked,

"Hey Twilight, what are you up to?"

"I'm growing a hot pepper plant." She answered, turning her head to look at him.

The young dragon walked over to the desk and stood up on a stool to have a look at the sprout. He gave the shoot a puzzled look and asked, "Isn't that going to take forever?"

"Not forever, but plants do take a good amount of time to grow!" answered Twilight, her hair swishing slightly as she went back to reading the book.

Spike loved hot peppers, but didn't love waiting for much of anything. But he asked rather politely, "Why don't you just use a growth spell on the plant? It'd be much faster, and you'd have the peppers now! Besides, a giant hot pepper plant isn't going to attack us." Spike seemed to remember why Twilight might be hesitant to automatically use magic to grow the plant.

Twilight Sparkle told him, "I know, but this is less about the peppers and more about learning patience. One of the things this book contains is a warning that plants that are grown with magic don't tend to be as healthy as those grown without it. If we wait for the plant to grow naturally, the peppers will taste so much better."

"There's got to be a way to make things go faster! Plants take months to grow!" complained the dragon, crossing his arms in disgust.

"There _is _a bag of fertilizer upstairs." said Twilight, "That will help the plant grow a little quicker without making it sick. Besides, I got this plant because I knew you like the peppers so much. It might be my plant, but if you're patient and help take care of it now, later on you'll get rewarded."

"Oh I see." said Spike, lightening up and returning his arms to his sides, "If you have to wait for something, it makes it more fun when you get it!"

"Exactly!" agreed Twilight, "We'll measure the plant every week, starting next weekend, and write down how the height. That way you can track how much it's growing."

Spike grabbed the potted plant and jumped down to the floor, "Great! Let me go put the little guy in the windowsill so he can get some more sunlight tomorrow."

Limpwing heard this and ducked into the bushes as the dragon put the plant down. He heard the rustling of the leaves and leaned out the round opening, looking for what had made the noise. After a few seconds, he guessed, "Probably just a squirrel.", and closed the glass of the window with a slam. Limpwing then emerged from the bushes and began to take notes on the conversation again,

"Twilight Sparkle, Element: Magic. Twilight Sparkle is capable of discovering new ways of self-improvement, which ultimately leads to the strengthening of friendships. She was recently found discussing the importance of patience and the pitfall of instant gratification with her dragon, Spike. As time goes on, she seems to learn more and more about interactions with others…"

As she continued to write, Techorse was on his belly, crawling up behind her. He wanted to confront Limpwing once and for all about her spying. But he came up to her flight goggles first before he could pounce on her, and noticed that in the left lens, a corner of paper was sticking out. Knowing his robotic arms would make a quiet but distinct whirring noise, he carefully took the paper with his teeth and opened it. It was a small paper map, showing a route out of Ponyville. The arrow went straight for Oldcastle for some odd reason, and then continued beyond that ancient structure out into an unknown area marked "The Domain". Techorse studied the route, and realized that it must be what Limpwing did every weekend. She had a second home deep in the woods behind the castle, and had named it "The Domain" for whatever eccentric reason. The green colt smiled and folded the map carefully, then tucked it back in the flight goggles. Turning around, he crept away quietly to go back to his castle. Tomorrow morning he would follow Limpwing to her secret "hideout" and have a showdown.

Once Limpwing had gone back home to her apartment, she sat on the roof with an enchanted scroll and a quill in her teeth. Limpwing was writing a letter,

"Dear Prince Darkmatter,

Today I learned that some ponies can truly take interest in what you do with yourself, and that's fine so long as they don't get too invasive.

Enclosed are my notes on the element users I observed today. Also, be advised…"

After finishing her letter, Limpwing sealed the enchanted scroll. It suddenly began to magically fold itself in various ways, and once it had finished, the scroll had turned itself into an origami crane. The bird started flapping its paper wings and soared away to go find its recipient. Limpwing then got off her roof quickly and went inside to get ready for bed.

The next morning, Techorse got up early and strapped on his battle saddle as soon as he had grabbed a quick hot shower. Skipping breakfast, he headed for the large double doors of his home on the edge of Ponyville, when he was stopped by PAL.

"Master, where are you going? It's six in the morning!" he demanded, body-blocking his inventor from leaving.

Techorse looked up and explained, "PAL, I'm going out to find out what Limpwing does on these weekends she goes missing. She left a map lying out that leads out behind Oldcastle. I just want to figure out where she spends the weekend is all. It's very strange for a pony to just disappear like this, in addition to all the spying she's been doing."

The robot frowned and scratched his metal chin, "Spying, master?"

The colt nodded and stomped his front hoof sharply, "Limpwing was taking notes while watching Twilight and Applejack yesterday. I need to know what she's doing with those. She could be up to something."

PAL moved out of the way of the huge wooden doors, and pushed the red button to the right of them. Slowly the two slabs of oak opened, and natural light poured into the stone hallway.

"All right. But be careful, I don't want you to end up getting yourself hurt!" cautioned the machine as he stepped aside.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine." he said with confidence as he walked out the doors. After a few steps, he remembered something and turned around,

"By the way, did you ever figure out what happened to Arbiter?"

PAL chuckled mechanically, "As you predicted, he went straight to Fluttershy's house. She let him in and served him tea, but of course refused to go back to his new vacation home. He seemed happy just to talk to her for a while though, and behaved himself."

The machine's expression then went completely serious, "But you should have seen Fluttershy's pet rabbit master! That little monster purposefully tripped Arbiter when he was only trying to complement Fluttershy's housework!"

"That rabbit…" sighed Techorse, "When will Fluttershy learn he's a little brat and discipline him?"

"Between you and me, master, I hope sooner and not later. Last time I visited Fluttershy, I took Ford with me, and he got bitten." said PAL dolefully.

Techorse shook his head and said before galloping off, "She'll do something sooner or later. But right now, I have to go finish my mission and confront Limpwing."

PAL waved goodbye and called out, "Good luck!"

Moving quickly to make up for lost time spent talking with PAL, Techorse reached Limpwing's apartment and waited patiently behind the building. He saw her leave the apartment complex shortly after he arrived, and take the exact path predicted by the map he had found inside her flight goggles. The pegasus pony went on her way without paying much attention to her surroundings. This easily allowed Techorse to shadow her to the edge of town, where finally, she took off into the air and slowly flew for Oldcastle. Techorse crouched on his legs, and his turbofans shot out from his saddle. He lifted off into the air and followed her from a distance to make sure he wasn't spotted.

* * *

Soon they flew past Oldcastle. The crumbling structure where Techorse's friends fought the demon-possessed Luna in the past had not suffered any damage since the encounter. But it was obvious that nopony had bothered to try and maintain the ancient building. It was almost pointless to do so. Limpwing, despite her handicap, was able to weave through some of the spires of the structure without any problems, and Techorse took advantage of the hidden areas in the castle to maintain stealth.

Eventually Limpwing landed next to a tall, crumbling stone wall. She walked around the perimeter for a while until she found a small opening, just tall enough for a pony to enter. Techorse watched her go through the doorway without evening checking around to see if she had followers. Then, he snuck in behind her.

What he saw on the other side of the wall was amazing. It was a small countryside populated with ponies, many of them with defects like Limpwing. These ponies, despite their disabilities, had put together a beautiful township behind the towering wall that separated them from the rest of Equestria. Life seemed to be nearly identical to that of other towns, but the concentration of odd ponies, either in behavior or figure, was half of the population. In the distance, a grand castle made of pure black granite stood in the distance. If it weren't for the magical heat sink runes dotted around the outside of the structure, it would be boiled on the inside during the sunny days of summer. Steam appeared to be billowing almost constantly from these equidistant magic stones.

Wandering into the town, Techorse looked at the residents and asked himself, "Why would these ponies need to live here in secret?" He thought about Twilight's fears about being banished, and thought that maybe this was where "bad ponies" went that Celestia didn't like. Techorse then came up with the idea that Limpwing had discovered the breach in Oldcastle's wall and discovered the city. She would then return to the secret town every weekend to help out the poor, tossed out residents. Despite this act of kindness, Techorse's heart sank when he thought for a moment that perhaps Celestia _did_ banish ponies after all. Maybe Twilight's fears weren't so crazy!

After walking away a bit from the stone wall, Techorse smiled, and knew that Limpwing was good at heart after all. He did, however, wonder why he was being stared at by several large unicorn ponies wearing armor.

Trying not to get nervous, Techorse thought, "_They must not like outsiders very much. I should probably just leave and ask Limpwing about this place when she gets back on Monday._"

* * *

He turned around to leave, but suddenly, a row of unicorn troops teleported in behind him. From the front, earth pony guards had cut off his ability to run in the town. He was now completely surrounded by troops. Techorse instinctively drew his laser cannons from his saddle and pointed them at the guards in front of him. Yelling, he opened fire with a volley of destructive energy pulses, blasting plates of armor off of the confused guards. A large whooshing noise was heard as a crossbow bolt hit the back of the saddle, damaging the circuitry, and forcing Techorse to spin around and shoot back. His beams struck the offending ballista, and the wooden armament exploded in a spray of torched splinters, its operator ran away in terror. A pegasus guard attempted to body slam the distracted inventor, but Techorse had already moved forward to confront the unicorns. They opened up with a rapid fire from their horns, and pellets of blue magic energy struck the green pony in the face, neck, and legs. Yet still, he charged on despite the stinging of the "ranged punches". One more spray of lasers from his guns sent the unicorn guards scattering for cover, leaving pieces of armor burned away on the ground. But the last unicorn guard stood his ground, and cast a force field spell over the hole. Techorse ran into the wall before he could stop, and the barrier reflected him.

Getting up and spinning around, he opened fire again at the closing guards. A warning tone came from his saddle, which made his blood run cold. Any second now, it would overheat and shut down for at least a minute, plenty of time for the ponies surrounding him to beat him to a pulp. He continued to fire, burning a few more guards into running away before the saddle finally emitted a cloud of steam and powered down. The laser cannons drooped downwards, and smoke poured from the front of them. One unicorn pony took this opportunity to cast a powerful telekinesis spell, and promptly ripped the disabled guns from the saddle, tossing them on the ground in front of Techorse. He knew that his mind-controlled device helped him to resist the magic attack initially, but with it powered down, it could easily be dismantled.

Techorse was now surrounded on three fronts, and his back faced the magical barrier covering the hole in the wall.

He said calmly, "Alright, there's no sense in continuing to fight here when there's no way I can get out. I surrender."

"Good!" said Limpwing, landing in the circle in front of Techorse, "For a minute there, I was worried the boys here were going to have to knock you out cold!"

"Limpwing? You're in command of these troops?" gasped Techorse.

She shook her head and explained, "Nope, not at all. I just lured you here so that they could capture you. You figured out my secret Tech, and I knew you were going to follow me. So I wrote my leader in advance to warn about you coming here today."

The inventor frowned and asked, "But how did you know I knew the secret of this town?"

She laughed once, "Ha! Simple. I keep my map to The Domain folded up in the left lens of flight goggles. You put the map back on the right side."

"And how did you know I took the map?"

"Not only did you ask all those questions, but you also didn't brush your teeth after a snack. You had some chocolate on your teeth when we talked, and I noticed the corner of the map had chocolate on it."

Techorse grunted and gave Limpwing a dirty look.

"I know you're upset because you've been outsmarted," teased Limpwing, "But hey, at least now you'll have plenty of time to re-strategize from a jail cell."

Techorse heard a small whirring noise behind his head, an indication that his saddle had finally rebooted. He knew he could smash through the barrier with enough firepower, if the shield absorbed too much, it would collapse and he could escape.

"That's what you think!" said Techorse, spinning around and running for the barrier. Once he got within four feet of the blue glowing patch over the hole, the slots on his saddle opened up, and his missile launchers emerged. Taking aim, once he was within 2 feet, he mentally fired off the projectiles. He bet that the missiles' explosive power would be absorbed by the barrier and take it out, letting him free. Sadly, this wasn't the case. The barrier had been far stronger than he had predicted, and the missiles exploded violently on it. Most of the blast energy radiated from the wall back at Techorse, burning him and sending him flying backwards. He was fortunate that he made his missiles from a plastic case, or else the explosion would have produced shrapnel, which would have severely wounded him.

The charred pony flew backwards for 5 feet, and landed in front of Limpwing again, burned comically and defeated. He was losing consciousness fast from the heat and pain, and heard Limpwing say before the guards stuffed him into a canvas bag,

"Get him to the castle, and get him some medical attention! He needs to be in top shape for what we need him for!"

To be continued…


	2. Part II

Rise of the Domain: Part II

Techorse #17

By Spirals95

* * *

A whole day went by since Techorse has gone past Oldcastle, and his robot servant was beginning to get extremely worried about him. He had been told by the colt that he'd return in the afternoon, and yet he had been gone for more than 24 hours. Eventually, the machine became so concerned about his master's disappearance that he calculated that it was time to take some action. PAL could no longer contain his worry for his inventor, and made a run out of the castle for the only pony he knew could help him in his quest. After all, trying to rescue his master alone would be a bold, but very stupid idea. With an obvious air of urgency, he rushed out the double doors of the castle, which shut behind him as soon as he ran out. The machine dashed down the streets of Ponyville, and his metal legs kicked up loose cobblestones with each step.

* * *

"Alright Spike, one last book, and this shelf will finally be organized!" said Twilight cheerfully to her assistant. The unicorn pony carefully positioned the last book to slide it into the shelf in its exact spot. Without any warning, the front door of the library was unhinged dramatically, and the red chunk of wood flew across the room and smashed into the center of the library. The books all fell off of the shelf that Twilight was working on, and she stared angrily at her ruined work. She span around and quickly shouted,

"Hey, what do you think you're…"

Twilight's expression quickly switched to shock. She thought someone had simply slammed the door open. But there it was, the front door, severed from its hinges and lying on the floor. PAL stood in the doorway, with a look of desperation plastered on his titanium-alloy face. The robot's soft orange glowing eyes looked up at Twilight, and he appeared to be panting despite his lack of need for oxygen.

"Mistress Sparkle!" he shouted, "The master has been missing for a whole day now! We must go to Oldcastle and go rescue him at once!"

All of this new information stunned Spike, who gave the robot a confused look. All he could manage to spit out was, "You… you blew the door off!"

Twilight successfully attempted to digest the information the frenzied machine had shouted, and asked calmly,

"Tech went out behind Oldcastle? Why?"

The robot entered the library and attempted to explain in a calmer manner, "Master left last morning to follow a Pegasus named Limpwing. She had plans to go out beyond Oldcastle this weekend, and he wanted to figure out what she was up to. But now that he's gone missing for so long, I can't help but think something terrible has happened to him!"

Spike immediately turned and grabbed a piece of parchment from off the nearby writing desk. Dipping a quill quickly, he started writing down a message. Once he was finished, he flipped the crude letter into the air and destroyed it with a quick shot from his fire breath.

"Spike, what was that for?" asked PAL.

"If Techorse is in trouble, princess Celestia has got to know about it!" explained Spike, "She'll know what to do about this."

Twilight turned back to face the dragon and said, "Wait a minute! Just because Techorse _suspected _something of Limpwing doesn't mean she did anything bad to him. Maybe she just invited him to spend a night in her second house!"

"How does a waitress afford a second house?" questioned PAL, putting his arms to his sides in disbelief.

"Maybe her parents bought it for her?" reasoned Twilight, hoping to see the best in the mysterious Limpwing.

Spike began to feel a heartburn-like sensation in his chest, and pounded a fist to his scaly front before belching out a brand new scroll. It was written on a red piece of scrap paper, and sealed hastily with an obviously recycled piece of blue wax. Opening it up, the dragon read the reply,

"Spike, have Twilight assemble the other element holders and report to Canterlot immediately. I will explain when you get here."

Twilight heard the order and said without letting a single second pass, "Alright, let's get everypony together then. PAL, go with Spike and get some weapons from Tech's castle. We're going to solve this, but I want to be on the safe side."

* * *

Techorse opened his eyes slowly after having been unconscious for several hours. He was on a simple bed of hay bales in a large windowless jail cell. The room was well lit by a series of torches, however, on the opposite side of the room outside of the steel bars. It was obvious that he had been unconscious for so long, partly because his saddle was missing, but also because he really had to use the bathroom desperately. Techorse found the commode in the corner of the jail cell, and was surprised at how clean it actually was. In fact, the old jail cell seemed to be kept neat as if it were for holding royalty, much less common prisoners. The colt got ready to use the freshly cleaned facility when he heard a rather loud voice behind him,

"Hey, don't use that, it's filthy!"

Turning to look at who had said that, he saw a mare outside of the metal bars. She was magenta in color, with light blue eyes, a tied-back yellow mane, and a cutie mark consisting of a triangle of spray bottles.

Techorse said calmly to her, "It looks clean to me, just don't watch, ok?"

"Nonsense!" she said, reaching with a hoof for the key ring next to the cell door, "That toilet's only been cleaned _once_ this week! You're going to use the one I clean every single morning."

The odd mare opened the jail cell door and led her prisoner out into the hallway.

Techorse thanked her for letting him out of the cell, but before he could say anything else, he was quickly whisked away to a nearby restroom, which was completely free of any dust, dirt, or mess whatsoever. After finishing, he left the clean bathroom and decided to find out more about his gracious host.

He asked her, "So, what's your name anyways?"

"I'm Neat Freak!" she replied happily, "I keep the castle here as clean as I possibly can. Dirt just makes me want to cringe."

"I can tell." Said the inventor, a little disturbed by just how often the mare had to clean to settle her nerves. He remembered that this country he was in was populated by very different ponies, and so was easily able to understand why she had the condition she was in.

"So I'm in the castle I saw at the edge of your city?" he asked, trying to remove the awkwardness of the conversation.

"Yep." Answered Neat, "Right now, I'm going to take you to see prince Darkmatter. He's the one who wanted you captured for some reason. Can't tell why though, you seem like a perfectly nice colt to me!"

"Well, I was following around his spy, Limpwing." admitted the green coated colt as he scraped a hoof on the ground, "He's probably jailing me for counter-espionage."

"I don't have any clue." Said the custodian mare, "All I know is that he wanted to see you as soon as you woke up! Just follow me to his throne room, ok?" Techorse walked behind her, and followed Neat Freak up a large set of wooden stairs out of the dungeon. The inside of the black-stone castle was decorated with magical lights that hung from the ceiling, as well as many, many pieces of framed artwork. Some canvases were at least 10 feet by 12 feet, and displayed huge landscapes. The floor of the neo-gothic styled hallway had a thin blue carpet, and an individual unfortunate enough to trip was likely to suffer from a head injury. After walking down the long corridor, the two ponies came across a pair of solid yellow wooden doors studded with copper bolts. Each door had a very large gold ring on it to make the heavy slabs easy to open. The entrance was being guarded by two heavily armored earth pony guards, who each had visible laser burn marks on their coats. They eyed Techorse angrily before opening the solid doors and pushing him in, leaving Neat Freak out. She waved goodbye to the captive colt before the doors were closed in front of her. Techorse waved back, without saying a word.

"So, you're the colt they call Techorse." said a surprisingly calm stallion.

* * *

Techorse approached the throne in the back of the room, which was almost hidden in the shadows of the darkened castle. Unlike Celestia's palace in Canterlot, there were absolutely no windows in this throne room, despite its elegant decorations. A few water fountains created a bubbling atmosphere that calmed the mind, but they were a stark contrast to how eerily dark the large central room was. The throne itself was more of a couch constructed from red velvet, several gemstones of various sizes, and the finest cherry wood money could buy.

The alicorn on the throne was at least three times as large as Techorse, but had to have been smaller than Celestia. His coat was jet-black in color, and his long, uncut mane hair was brass in color, and as it moved by its own power, a shimmer of silver would streak through it, giving the illusion that energy constantly coursed through the mane. His tail was of equal color and quality, being long, thick, and uncut. On the top of his left ear, a small gold earring hung, probably to match the amber tone of his eyes. The stallion's horn bore an ornate and complex silver crown, which was dotted with equidistant amethyst jewels. His cutie mark was the awesome black hole, a vortex that consumed his entire flank, with several small white dots of light being drawn towards the center, unable to escape the gravity. An aura of fear and anger radiated from this stallion, but yet, it was not directed at the green pony before him. Techorse could pick up on this, but he couldn't tell why the prince was angry. He did, however, notice that Limpwing was laying down on one of three large red throw pillows on the ground in front of the throne. She was giving him a smug look, still happy she had beaten him in battle.

"Prince Darkmatter." said Techorse as he looked up at the leader, "Why did you send Limpwing to spy on me and my friends?"

"All in good time." Replied the stallion as he got up from his throne and approached his prisoner, "But until I tell you why, I need you to do me a favor."

"What?"

Darkmatter smiled and answered truthfully, "My top scientists can't seem to figure out how your magic saddle works. I want you to show them how to mass produce them."

Techorse's mane immediately began to straighten a little bit upon hearing that. The battle saddle was a high tech piece of gadgets and weaponry. It couldn't be trusted in the hooves of ponies like Limpwing and Darkmatter! But the inventor knew that the leader had plans for him if he didn't build battle saddles for him. So, he asked,

"And what monster do you plan on feeding me to if I say no?"

The Alicorn prince lightly ruffled the feathers on his wings and coughed before answering, "I had no intent on getting rid of you if you chose not to copy your gadget for my troops. However, I have always wanted a gelding servant, and I'd be happy to make _you_ that servant with the rustiest tools I can find!"

Techorse noticed that Darkmatter's guards were squirming at the thought of that happening to any colt. He knew he had no choice but to comply with the prince's demands and make him copies of his favorite invention. The alternative was simply too much to bear.

"Alright, I'll make you battle saddles." he said, swallowing his fear, "But I'm going to need parts, and plenty of time."

"You'll be staying in my castle's workshop from now on then." Said Darkmatter, "My scientists will bring you all the parts you need. As for time, I'll give you a month to make a working copy. If you don't have it by then…"

The leader took his front hoof and made a diagonal slashing movement,

"_slice!_"

Limpwing laughed at Techorse's nervous expression from the threat.

He shot her a nasty look and said, "I can't believe you set me up like this, Limpwing. I thought you were my friend."

The blue pegasus rolled her eyes and said, "I don't hate you Techorse, but honestly, the ponies in this country are so disadvantaged that it's worth trapping you here to give them a better chance at life. Plus, you can be a little bit preachy."

"Regardless of how annoying our guest can be." interrupted Darkmatter, "I intend to use the saddles for the good of The Domain. I'm sure Techorse can easily think of what we're going to do. "

He answered with certainty, "You're going to invade the rest of Equestria."

"Well, not _all_ of it." admitted the prince, "I don't want to simply replace Equestria's residents with The Domain's. I want my ponies to integrate with Celestia's, right after I'm finished with her for what she did all those years ago."

"But remember, this is about the ponies of The Domain. You can confront princess Celestia after we've re-introduced ourselves into Equestria." reminded Limpwing.

Darkmatter looked at Limpwing and said softly, "Of course, Lieutenant Limpwing. I owe it to my citizens that my plan has come along this far. My top priority will be getting them situated in Equestria."

Techorse asked with anger in his voice, "What did Celestia ever do to you?"

Darkmatter's expression turned wrathful as he said, "I'm sure you're just itching to know. When you finish the saddles, then I'll be more inclined to explain. But for now, it's none of your business. Get to work!"

The guards surrounded Techorse and marched him off to the laboratory. Limpwing gave him a teasing wink as she turned to talk to her boss. Techorse simply shook his head in contempt as he was led out of the throne room.

* * *

Princess Celestia walked down the hallways of her castle with a saddened expression on her face. Her guards Jools and Jops tried to comfort her with looks of confidence, but their efforts went unrewarded as the princess continued to mope. The knowledge that the letter Spike had sent to her had caused her to remember a piece of her past which she had tried her hardest to forget over hundreds of years. The little, hastily written scroll floated in front of her via her magic. The small piece of paper had reopened the emotional wound. Eventually, Celestia reached her sister's bedchamber, and gently pushed open the door. Luna was fast asleep on the pink bed in the center of the room, not even needing a blindfold to remain unconscious. The princess of the night often went through phases of sleeping normally at night, and taking several naps during the day. This week was obviously nap week for her, which slightly amused her older sister.

"Sister." Said Celestia softly, "I need you to wake up."

Luna opened her eyes gently, in complete control of her sleep cycle, and gently raised her head from the pillow. Her sparkly dark blue mane started to flow as she sat up from the bed. She was dressed in a black nightgown, and her crown was gently resting on the nightstand next to her huge bed.

"What problem has arisen?" she asked, trying not to yell from being woken up all of a sudden.

"It's probably a better idea for me to explain once Twilight Sparkle and her friends have arrived." Stated Celestia plainly, "There's no sense in giving the same speech twice."

"Agreed." muttered Luna, walking over to her linen closet, "I shall change and be ready for them shortly!"

After taking off her nightgown and swapping it for her crown and silver hoofguards, Luna left her bedroom and followed her older sister. As the two walked down the hall, the guards from around the castle began to form around them, ready to take action. To them, the two sisters seemed angry and determined to do something. They knew that they had a duty to protect them through whatever it was they thought was ahead. Eventually, Arbiter filed in between his stallions, his one good eye looking at the blue hilt tied around his waist.

"So what's the situation?" he asked princess Celestia, "You have the entire castle up in arms about something!"

"What we are about to talk about is probably a reason to go on the defensive." She answered sternly, "I want you, Jools, and Jops to begin preparing for an attack. Raise the shield runes!"

Arbiter immediately turned around and halted roughly half of the guards behind him, "You heard the princess, _shields up_!"

The white and gray stallions scattered, their armor making loud noises as they rushed around the castle. Each of them found one of the various shield runes scattered around the castle and pushed the magic stone with a front hoof. A blue line of energy shot out from the marked rock, and connected to the other flat stones nearby. Soon, all of the runes in the castle had been linked up by the lines of magic, and were now glowing an intense cyan color. Captain Arbiter entered the command room of the castle, and found the master rune in the middle. The largest of the stones, and the most ornately carved, it controlled whether or not the shield was to be fully raised or not. Arbiter stuck out his left leg, and pressed as hard as he could on the magic panel. A column of white energy shot up from the rock, and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling of the shield room's domed roof.

* * *

Outside, a series of hexagons made from glowing magic energy began building up around the cliff-side castle. The blue energy eventually made a complete honeycomb structure, ready to absorb millions of joules if necessary. In addition to the defensive shield it provided, it also had a nasty secret; it would electrocute any living creature that touched it at any other speed than a slow crawl. One could carefully step through the field without coming to harm, but any violent action against it would result in an electrical surge the strength of a police tazer being applied to the victim. This feature of the shield was obviously to counter one type of previous attack against the castle, and Arbiter was quite proud of the unicorns in his family for coming up with the idea.

Back inside the shield room, Arbiter swished his cape and made a gallop for the door. He had to join back up with the princesses as soon as possible. Even though he had no clue what he and the other guards were up against, he knew that he'd be in for some kind of a battle. The white stallion had a smirk upon his face because of this. His job was going to be a whole lot more exciting today.

The princesses had gone with their guards out to the courtyard, where they knew Twilight Sparkle and her friends would teleport at any moment. They waited patiently out in the daylight, the breeze flowing through their manes as they stared continuously at the cobblestone. Sure enough, a purple beacon began to form on the pavement, and with a burst of sound and energy, Twilight and company had materialized in front.

The six ponies, accompanied by one robot and one dragon, looked in confusion at the magical energy guarding the castle.

"What's with the new shield?" asked Rainbow Dash, immediately concerned about the extra defense.

"I know who captured Techorse, and he may attack us at any time." Explained Celestia, looking angrily off into the distance, where she could see some storm clouds coming in.

"Now before we all get too dramatic," urged Applejack, "we need to know exactly who took Techie, and what we can do to get him back!"

Princess Celestia took a deep breath, then returned her look to the team, "Since Techorse went missing behind Oldcastle, only one pony I know could be the one behind his capture."

"Who?" asked Spike, trying to look tough by cracking his knuckles.

"My brother, prince Darkmatter." said Celestia.

Luna's eyes got a bit bigger as she asked, "He's… still living?"

Celestia confirmed it with a nod, "It would seem so."

"I knew about your brother Helios, he's Cadence's father," said Twilight, "but I didn't know you had _another_ brother out there!"

"Yeah!" said Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down as if it was a nervous habit, "Tell us about him! Why did he capture Techie?"

Celestia told them the story, "A long time ago, when Luna became Nightmare Moon, she had a brother named Darkmatter who loved her to pieces. Although my sister and I built the Elements of Harmony and ruled from Canterlot, our brothers ran the court systems to ensure justice for every pony. They preferred to do this over any duty of the throne. But of course, as we all know, I was forced to banish Luna to save the planet."

"And this made Darkmatter furious!" continued Luna, "I was informed that he and Helios were outraged by my sister's actions. Helios hasn't spoken to Celestia since!"

"He even missed out on his own daughter's wedding just to avoid you…" mumbled Fluttershy.

"Of course," continued Celestia as she tried to bring the topic back, "Helios simply refuses to speak to me. Darkmatter swore that he would one day return and take revenge on me for what I did."

Rarity asked, "But why would he capture poor Tech? I understand him sending Limpwing to spy on us, but poor Tech doesn't deserve to sit in a prison!"

"I know exactly why Darkmatter kidnapped the master, Rarity," said PAL. He immediately dropped the laser minigun he was carrying on the ground purposefully, making a huge crashing sound on the stone, which startled Fluttershy and caused the guards to look at the weapon in awe.

"Master Techorse builds advanced tools and weapons. If he's coming for you, your majesty, he would need these to stop your guards."

"So, if they're after Tech's brains to build weapons, we have to save him before they force him to hoof over all his designs!" said Rainbow Dash, lifting into the air and smashing one hoof into the other like a punch.

"Then let's get started." said Twilight, "We'll go back to Oldcastle and find Techorse, then stop Darkmatter from taking over Equestria!"

"Let's get you the Elements of Harmony first," cautioned Celestia. "Darkmatter is very, very powerful as a spell-caster. His gravity-based magic can easily deal with you if you underestimate him."

"Sounds like a plan," chuckled Applejack, straightening her hat. "Should we take Techie's element to him as well?"

Silence fell over Celestia as she tried to decide whether or not to say yes. Including Techorse's element of Justice carried the risk of causing the end of her brother. But saying no would also mean that Darkmatter might never be defeated for sure. After a long period of time to think, she finally answered,

"No. I want to be able to deal with my sibling myself."

The guards, and even Arbiter, seemed to turn a little pale from the cold statement. The only pony that seemed to be completely unaffected by the implication was Pinkie Pie, who cheerfully cried out,

"Then let's get the Elements and get moving! The sooner we get Techie back, the sooner we can celebrate!"

The team headed inside the nearest doorway of the castle. They were prepared to fight to save their friend, and had high hopes for finishing the challenge ahead.

* * *

On the other side of the country, Techorse had finally finished making an exact copy of his battle saddle. The device sat on the laboratory table in front of him next to his original device. It had been painted with a blue streak to differentiate it from the parent copy. The scientists watching Techorse carefully began to applaud him for his amazing machine skills, and how rapidly he had managed to build another out of the lower-technology parts that they had. But the leader of the research team silenced them and said,

"Don't cheer too much. He's having to betray his friends to bring us this modern marvel."

Techorse said to him with contempt, "You don't have to listen to Darkmatter you know. You can probably come and go into Equestria as you please. Why bother invading?"

The head scientist pushed his glasses up his muzzle and said with a slight sigh, "Well, unfortunately, we chose to live here because of how different we are. We just want to get back at all the ponies who made fun of us before we came here in self-exile."

"Is revenge really the answer?" asked Techorse, turning around to lecture them, "You shouldn't meet injustice with violence unless it's absolutely necessary!"

"Revenge might not be the first choice, but right now, it's the most satisfying one!" laughed the scientist unicorn, "Limpwing was right, you are kind of preachy." The other scientists looked at their boss, and rolled their eyes in disgust at his rude speech. But the horrid manager continued,

"In fact, I'd say that if it weren't for your brains and money, you'd have no friends whatsoever. You're just no fun to be around with all this justice crud you toss out!"

The inventor finally got fed up with the leader's hideous attitude. Using his thoughts, Techorse influenced his battle saddle to extend a robot fist right through the scientist's face, breaking his glasses and knocking him to the floor.

The other scientists stared at their unconscious friend. Techorse immediately regretted his actions, and knew that any second now the other workers would be upon him.

However, one of them finally spoke up with a mocking tone, "Ooooops! It looks like the battle saddle malfunctioned!"

"Malfunction!" muttered the other employees in agreement.

Apparently they justified Techorse's action on the grounds that their boss was being a complete jerk.

"Don't worry, I'll fix the problem right away." said Techorse with a chuckle, playing along.

"Once you do, you'll need to present this to prince Darkmatter immediately," said one of the employees. "He wants proof you've been working on it."

"I'll show him as soon as I can." promised Techorse, "I just have to tighten a few more screws, and then it'll be ready to go."

Once the colt had finally finished putting together the saddle, one of the scientists picked it up and carried it by its straps in his teeth. They traveled together back to the throne room, where Limpwing and Darkmatter were waiting for them. Darkmatter smiled with anticipation as he saw the two come in with the prototype saddle.

"Ah, so you decided to make the saddle in a timely manner!" he said. "Excellent choice. I was afraid I was going to have to perform my 'surgery' on you."

Limpwing got up from the cushion she was on, and snapped her flight goggles down over her crimson eyes, "Let me try it out first. We need to make sure Techorse actually produced a working saddle."

"Good point, Lt. Limpwing. Strap on that saddle, and see if it works."

Limpwing took the device from the scientist and wrapped it around her own back, carefully making sure not to trap her wings under the black straps. The blue-striped saddle fit perfectly on her body.

"So how do I use this, Tech?" she asked, looking back a bit at the metal object.

"First you have to calibrate the battle saddle to read your brainwave pattern" he explained, "Then, just start thinking about what you want to do, and the saddle will automatically comply."

Limpwing concentrated on getting the device to register to her thought pattern, and soon, it responded with a small whir.

She thought to herself, "_I think I'll test out the…_"

Due to her lack of experience with the machine, the laser cannons emerged from the saddle and subsequently fired off a pair of yellow bolts. They flew across the room and struck a vase, destroying it and sending pieces of porcelain flying everywhere. The guards in the room jumped to attention at the sudden event. Limpwing simply stood there in awe of her accidental attack.

"Whoops. Did _not_ mean to do that," she said sheepishly.

Darkmatter looked at the burned spot where the vase once was and said, "Brilliant! Now that you've shown my scientists how to build saddles like this, I can easily take back Canterlot for myself! Limpwing, try the missiles out on the marble column that vase was on!"

"You got it!" she responded, thinking about the missiles. The laser cannons disappeared back into the device, and with a grinding sound, the missile racks, each armed with a single projectile, took their place. Limpwing prepared to fire the rockets, and sparks suddenly flew out of the racks. She screamed as the faulty launchers exploded on themselves, destroying most of the saddle and pushing her down to the floor.

"What the hay was that?!" she gasped, standing up and taking the device off her. She tossed the machine down to the floor, and stared at its burned remains.

Darkmatter's horn glowed black as he became angry at Techorse, and the poor colt was lifted off of the ground by his neck. The dark alicorn choked him and shouted, "You sabotaged the saddle to try and hurt Limpwing!"

Techorse protested weakly, "It wasn't me! It's the inferior parts you're making me work with!"

But the prince wouldn't listen, instead tightening his magical grasp against Techorse's neck. The strangling colt was beginning to see colors before his eyes as his brain rapidly ran out of air.

Limpwing said to her leader, "Sir, let him go! If he was honestly trying to hurt me, I wouldn't be standing here in one piece."

The idea made perfect sense to Darkmatter, and he replied, "As you wish."

He let go of Techorse, causing him to fall to the ground. Limpwing shook her head at him as he coughed and gasped for oxygen.

"Well, one thing's for sure, the missile launcher is out. Do you think we can still go through with the invasion with just the laser cannons?" asked Limpwing.

Darkmatter answered, "Most likely. We'll just tell the scientists to remove the missile racks from the design. Chances are everything else works and won't explode spectacularly."

Limpwing turned to Techorse and said, "I'm going to go drop you off outside of Oldcastle now. You've given the prince what he needs, Tech."

Darkmatter's guards blocked the door to the throne room, and the alicorn said with laughter in his voice, "Now wait just a minute, Lieutenant. Techorse here is aware of our plans to attack Canterlot, and will most certainly take away our element of surprise by warning princess Celestia of it. Perhaps we should consider keeping him permanently, or at least until we've succeeded."

The pegasus pony looked back at Techorse, who had a defeated expression on his face. She knew that Darkmatter wanted to break his deal and keep Techorse locked up for good. But she felt as if somehow, she and Techorse were still friends. Somehow she had to make prince Darkmatter keep his word, and not bring Techorse to harm.

"All right, but he's staying with us." She said, "If it's fine with you, your majesty. I don't want him put in that jail cell again where he might escape."

Limpwing smiled on the inside when she heard Darkmatter buy her idea hook line and sinker, "That's a good idea. If we keep Techorse in our sights the entire time, he has no chance of getting away and ruining our plans."

* * *

Twilight and her team had finally reached the hole in the wall that separated The Domain from Oldcastle. She turned around to face her friends and said,

"All right everypony. They're probably waiting for us on the other side of this wall. I want you all to be ready for the worst!"

Giving a battle cry, the team charged in through the hole into the town. They were rather embarrassed by the fact that there were absolutely no guards waiting for them on the other side, and that now every last resident of the town was giving them funny looks. To save face, they waved to the citizens, and then continued on their way to the steam-emitting castle. Once they had reached the palace, they avoided the guards' eyes and snuck around to the side of the massive structure.

"Alright Spike, PAL, as we practiced earlier!" ordered Twilight.

PAL nodded and picked up Spike by his tail and head. Spike created a tiny constant flame out of his mouth, and the robot used him as a living blowtorch to cut a door-shaped marking on the wall of the castle. Applejack then ran up, turned around, and bucked the black stones as hard as she possibly could. The weakened wall caved in, giving the team a breach point. The two guards standing in the hallways magically picked up some clubs to beat off the friends. But Rainbow Dash was already upon them, and she gave them a thrashing until they were both out cold on the floor. Fluttershy had closed her eyes as Rainbow Dash had pounded the guards, and Rarity gently tapped her when it was over.

"Sorry, I just really didn't want to see that." She said quietly.

"It's quite all right dear." soothed Rarity, "Rainbow Dash is quite brutal."

"I am not, these guys are going to be fine!" argued Rainbow Dash.

"We're losing time!" said Twilight, "PAL and Spike, you take the first hallway, and the rest of us will try to go for the throne room. See if you can find anything about Darkmatter's plans and sabotage any weapons you come across that look like they were made by Techorse!"

"Of course, Mistress Sparkle!" shouted PAL, charging in with his Gatling cannon in hand. Spike followed behind him, and they disappeared around a corner of the dark fortress.

"Alright girls," said Twilight, "let's get to that throne room. Once we're there, I'll give us the elements from my saddlebags, and we'll stop Darkmatter!"

They took off galloping in a straight line, prepared to fight any guards they came across. But strangely enough, they did not meet very much resistance. It was as if Darkmatter wanted them to be there. Eventually, they came across the throne room doors, being guarded by eight guards with light armor and crossbows. The guards smirked and launched their bolts at the girls, not caring if they hit them. Twilight quickly jumped in front of her friends and deployed a purple-colored barrier, causing the arrows to beak. Without any time to reload, the mares were on top of the guards in no time, and they easily overpowered them. Fluttershy and Rarity tied up the defeated stallions with a large red ribbon, and left them in the hallway. Together the six entered the throne room, and found Techorse chained to the throne. Darkmatter sat there, and Limpwing had taken her place again on the cushion.

"Well, what brings you here?" asked Darkmatter, getting up from his seat and walking forward. His guards formed a wedge-shaped defensive formation in front of the alicorn.

"We're here to take back Techorse, mister!" said Applejack, "Of course, the sooner you give him over, the easier this is gonna be for ya!"

"You can have Techorse back after we've taken Canterlot," said Darkmatter calmly, "I want you to know that I have no intention of bringing physical harm to your close friend."

Techorse shouted, "He's lying! He threatened to turn me into a gelding, Twilight!"

Twilight Sparkle gave Darkmatter a nasty look, and her horn glowed an angry violet.

"You were going to _WHAT?_" she asked.

"Hey, it was only a joke!" claimed Darkmatter, "I wasn't really going to… you know."

"Oh I doubt that." said Rarity, stepping up next to Twilight, "You seem like just the colt to do such a thing. What, with wanting to harm princess Celestia and all. You're just a big brute."

"Regardless, you are all too late." said the alicorn, "I already have Techorse's battle saddles in full production. Soon my stallions will be ready to overrun Canterlot. Then, I'll personally punish Celestia for everything she did to my sweet sister Luna!"

Techorse's jaw fell open. Fluttershy saw this from across the room and tried to whisper to him, "We'll explain it to you later, Tech!"

"You won't punish Celestia, 'cause we're going to take you down!" boasted Rainbow Dash. Darkmatter shook his head and ordered his guards to attack.

The ten colts dashed forward to engage the six friends. Twilight opened up with several magic projectiles from her horn, one of the shots managed to catch a guard before he even got a few feet away from Darkmatter. Once they were within melee range, Applejack jumped high in the air, and brought her full weight down on another guard, crushing him in his armor and leaving him out cold. Rarity brought out a diamond from her bag and swung it at one of the guards several times.

"Hah, you missed." He said, laughing as he prepared to beat Rarity.

"Oh, did I?" said Rarity with teasing in her voice. The guard's armor immediately fragmented from the diamond cuts, falling to the floor in small pieces. He covered himself up in shame from losing his clothing, and slowly backed away from Rarity.

Rainbow Dash dueled another one of the guards during the fight, swinging her hooves at him while trying to dodge his returned blows. As they battled, Fluttershy attempted to get out of the fight by crawling away slowly. The guard Rainbow Dash was fighting accidentally tripped over the retreating Fluttershy, and fell hard on the ground. She looked at the injured stallion and said meekly,

"Sorry!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and went back to try and help the others. Pinkie Pie had found herself in trouble, as one of the guards had her pinned to the floor.

"You guys wouldn't hurt me!" she said, trying not to lose her positive attitude, "I'm too much fun, right?" The guard shook his head and brought one of his hooves down. Pinkie Pie slipped out from under him, rolled between his legs, and came out from behind him. The guard brought down his hoof on the pavement, and realized in shock that Pinkie had dropped a large lit firecracker on the ground where she once was. It exploded in his face, and he fell over defeated.

And within a minute, the battle was over. Ten guards had been reduced to a group of unconscious or embarrassed ponies. Darkmatter looked at what had become of his "elite" stallions in disgust, and said,

"How did you beat them? Those colts were ten times as strong as you!"

"Maybe they're strong physically, but you're threatening our friend!" said Twilight, "And that gives us the will to beat them!" Opening the bag on her side, Twilight tossed out the element artifacts to her friends.

"Are those the Elements of Harmony?" asked Darkmatter.

"Yes," said Twilight, "in a few seconds, you and Limpwing are going to be nothing but a pair of statues!"

Darkmatter's horn glowed black. He was obviously going to cast something on the six ponies before him. Suddenly, they felt as if they couldn't move, and Fluttershy fell to the ground almost instantly. As Darkmatter's horn glowed more intensely, the friends began to feel heavier and heavier!

"What's happening?" shrieked Pinkie Pie as she collapsed on the stone floor. Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were soon pinned to the floor as well. Finally, after an even more intense struggle, Applejack's legs gave, and the orange earth pony hit the floor hard.

"I'm using my magic to increase the local gravity around you six," laughed Darkmatter. "Right now you're experiencing 5 G's, five times the gravity of Equestria. Three more and you'll be as flat as a pancake, Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight didn't expect the prince to know her name, and she asked him, "How did you know who I was?"

Limpwing explained, "I've been spying on you this whole time, Twilight, writing things down about you. Darkmatter knows everything about the Elements of Harmony now."

"Yes!" exclaimed the prince, "And now that you're here, I can go with my original plan for defeating Celestia! Limpwing, you're now immune to my gravity spell. Take the elements and head down to the golem locker! Begin creation of my automated troops."

"What about the battle saddles?" she asked.

Darkmatter pointed with a hoof at his unconscious guards, "These weaklings don't deserve the honor of helping me get revenge. The golems will be a much more powerful force."

Limpwing frowned and said, "But this is about The Domain's citizens regaining Equestria! What's the point if there are no ponies?"

Darkmatter laughed, "Who cares? Honestly, you and your ponies can have whatever we want once I'm done with Celestia!"

The blue pegasus pony completely removed her flight goggles, and entered the gravity field. She removed the element artifacts, and then carried them off in a sack to take down to the golem locker. Limpwing left the room and looked at the six suffering friends. They all looked like they were in a lot of pain from being trapped under Darkmatter's spell. She actually began to feel sorry for them, and was also a little disturbed by the fact that Darkmatter was more concerned about his revenge than the desires of the citizens.

After Limpwing had left the room, Darkmatter used his magic to pick up the six helpless ponies, and dump them on the floor in front of his throne. He then pushed his unconscious guards out of the room, locked the door, and laughed menacingly.

"Now that I have your elements, I no longer need any of you." He said, "I think I'll do to you what I plan on doing to Celestia once this is all over."

Darkmatter shouted loudly, and his eyes glowed a brilliant white along with his horn as a huge bolt of energy hit the floor. A huge wormhole appeared on the floor, sucking in several of the stones with the sheer gravity.

"This wormhole actually leads straight to Canterlot castle's main lobby." Darkmatter explained, "But, it takes one thousand years to travel through it completely."

"Please don't throw us in there!" begged Fluttershy.

Darkmatter shook his head, "Looks like somepony's volunteering to be first!"

Rainbow Dash wanted to do something to protect her friend, but they were all too weak from the gravity spell. "You leave Fluttershy alone!"

"Well girls, it looks like this is the end," said Twilight with a sad expression on her face. "I'm so sorry I got all of you dragged into this!"

"We had to try," replied Applejack. "It's not your fault."

Techorse sighed and said, "Darkmatter, please. You don't have to do this."

"Why shouldn't I do it?" he asked, "You were going to stone me like that chimera the four of us royals fought all those years ago!"

"I know that somewhere in there, you're just angry about what happened to Luna." said Techorse, "I want you to know that Luna's back, her banishment is over. She's made up with Celestia, and I'm sure she'd be miserable if she found out we suffered because we tried to stop you from making a stupid mistake."

Darkmatter looked at Techorse in surprise, "Luna's alive?"

"Even better!" said Pinkie Pie, "She's really happy with her life right now, gets along with princess Celestia, and even likes my parties!"

"I… I want proof!" said the confused prince.

"If you turn off the vortex of doom, we'll take you to her," promised Twilight.

Darkmatter dispelled the black hole, causing it to collapse in on itself.

"Now, take me to Luna," he said.

Twilight and her friends stood up from the ground.

She said to him, "We'll make sure you get to see Luna as soon as possible. But first, you have to call off your invasion!"

* * *

Down below in the golem locker, PAL and Spike searched for the weapons laboratory. They walked among the large piles of rocks meant for making the constructs, searching for a hint as to where the lab might be.

"This place gives me the creeps!" said Spike, "Wonder what all these rock piles are for anyways?"

On a balcony above them, Limpwing finished placing each of the Elements of Harmony onto six different runed tables. She then walked over to a large lever, and pulled it. Magical energy surged through the element artifacts, which absorbed extra power from them before draining down the legs of the tables, and onto carvings into the floor beneath the spy. The energy surged over the railing, and struck the piles of stone below. PAL and Spike jumped back in surprise as the small stone piles began to animate themselves. Each one took the form of a small bipedal monster, and on each ones left arm, a pink crystal spike glowed with powerful magical energy. The golems had glowing red "eyes" which tracked the robot and the dragon.

"Yikes!" shouted Spike, "Those are golems!"

"How do you know for sure?" questioned PAL.

"Twilight was reading a book about them. Apparently they're designed to guard their master and follow his orders!" explained the dragon in a panic. He knew that the golems were going to attack him and PAL any second.

The stone figures moved forward and started to charge the pair.

PAL spun up his minigun and said, "Spike, a lot of ponies mistake me for a metal golem. Now, those who know that I'm actually a robot say that I'm much better than any golem they've ever seen. If you be brave and help me, Spike, I'm sure we can prove them right."

Spike beat back his fear, and stood next to PAL. The golems were rushing them at full speed, opening up with their magic blasters. Pink bolts rushed by the two friends, but they held their ground. PAL gave a loud shout, and opened fire as Spike shot a stream of flame at the approaching constructs.

Limpwing wasn't quite aware of the golems attacking the two below and simply returned to the throne room. She found Darkmatter continuing to talk to Twilight and her friends about Luna's return, and how she was actually not mad at Celestia for her banishment.

Limpwing asked, "What's going on?"

Darkmatter explained to her, "Lieutenant, Twilight here and her friends are telling me that princess Luna has returned! Is that true?"

"Well yes…" she said.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he demanded, rushing up to Limpwing, "I didn't need to go through with attacking Canterlot if Luna was ok!"

"Hey!" defended Limpwing, not cowering from the angry royal at all, "You told me to spy on the element holders, not find out about Princess Luna! Don't blame me for this!"

Darkmatter grunted and agreed reluctantly, asking, "Well, did you build the golems or not?"

"I did." She answered with frustration, "You told me to!"

"Go turn off the device!" he ordered, "We're not invading anymore!"

"Now hold on," said Limpwing, knowing what Twilight had done, "I think Techorse and his friends have tricked you, my lord. They had to fight a very angry Luna when she first returned, and it was only the power of the Elements of Harmony that purified her. "

Darkmatter spun around and said, "So… you tricked me?"

Twilight said in embarrassment, "Well, I wouldn't say we tricked you. Luna's ok now, she was a little bit upset when she came back at first, but she's much better."

"Magically forcing her to improve doesn't count." He shouted loudly, "Fine… I'll go to Canterlot and deal with Celestia, regardless of the invasion plans."

With a burst of energy, Darkmatter disappeared in a flash and teleported away for Canterlot.

Pinkie Pie screamed, "Darkmatter's going to get princess Celestia!"

"Not if we can stop him first," said Techorse. "Let's go get the Elements of Harmony back and go to Canterlot!"

"But where are they?" asked Applejack. "We have to find them first!"

"No you don't," sighed Limpwing. "I'm taking you to them."

The friends looked at who they thought had betrayed them with surprise.

"Really?" asked Fluttershy hopefully.

Limpwing said calmly, "Darkmatter said that The Domain's citizens would get a chance to go back to Equestria and rejoin society. Well, he's made it obvious that all he really wants to do is get revenge on Celestia. I might work for Darkmatter, but my loyalties are with The Domain, and if he manages to do what I know he wants to do to Celestia, The Domain's name is going to be permanently hurt. I'm taking you to get your elements back."

"With any luck," said Twilight. "We'll be able to stop Darkmatter before it's too late."

* * *

Darkmatter teleported straight through the shield of Canterlot castle. He entered inside the throne room, where Celestia and Luna were sitting. Luna recognized her long-lost brother immediately.

"Darkmatter!" shouted Luna, standing up from the chair and rushing to embrace him.

"Oh Luna, you're finally back!" he said, happy to see his sibling again. They hugged in front of Celestia, who smiled gently.

"Welcome back, brother." She said to him, trying to be friendly.

"All right Luna, we can catch up right after I settle this." said Darkmatter with a sinister tone. He pushed Princess Luna aside and walked right up to Celestia.

"Celestia, I come with both good and bad news. The good news is that I will not be invading your territory. You can bring your defenses down and return life to normal."

Celestia looked down at her brother and asked, "Then what is the bad news?"

Darkmatter's horn glowed as he said, "I'm still going to punish you for what you did to Luna. Prepare to be banished for a millennium."

Celestia gave him a look of horror, but shot up from her throne and attempted to defend herself. She shot a solid beam of electric energy at Darkmatter, but the prince put up a small black hole in front of him, which vacuumed up the powerful attack. Celestia stopped and looked around for an escape vector.

"It's no use, you've trapped yourself here." He said, "Hopefully this banishment will make you think more carefully about using the Elements on your own family!"

Luna stepped in front of Darkmatter and begged him, "No brother! Don't do it, everything between me and sister is now as our subjects say 'all good'!"

"Luna, you have really been brainwashed!" he said in depression, trying not to cry from his own psychological failings, "Now I really will make you pay, Celestia!"

Seconds before Darkmatter could cast his wormhole, Techorse, Limpwing, and the others teleported in the room. PAL and Spike were there also, covered in dirt from all the golems they had reduced to dust. Each of the six mares were wearing their respective artifacts. The dark prince turned to look at them, and said,

"Limpwing! You traitor…"

"Based on what the others have said, I'd say you're the real traitor," scoffed Limpwing. "I'm done working for you."

"All right girls!" said Twilight. "Formation!"

The mares assembled together to begin their elemental attack. Their eyes turned a brilliant white as energy began to accumulate between them.

"Techorse, count us off!"

"Aw crap…" muttered Darkmatter in horror.

Techorse chuckled and said, "With pleasure! Fluttershy, kindness!"

Darkmatter slowly backed away from the team and said, "Hey now, let's talk this all over!"

"Rarity, Generosity!"

The prince decided in an act of desperation to attempt to rush the wormwhole spell. Sparks of energy began to form in front of him as he concentrated on creating the portal.

"Pinkie Pie, laughter!"

* * *

Luna saw her brother beginning the spell, and knew that Twilight and her friends would not be able to finish their charge fast enough to save Celestia.

"There's no time for this!" she shouted impatiently.

At that moment, the princess of the night decided to take things into her own hooves. To the surprise of the ponies trying to use their Elements, she jumped into the air, wings spread as far as possible, and shot a beam of pure energy down at her brother. In awe of the strike, the others powered down the Element artifacts and watched on.

The prince attempted to defend himself from Luna's attack by summoning yet another black hole in front of him. The huge beam was devoured by the black hole, but the energy from it was started to make the vortex spark. Darkmatter grinned as the hole absorbed the attack, but his expression went into one of confusion as the black hole began to warp. And with a loud, sharp blast, the black hole overloaded and became a quasar, spilling its contents all over Darkmatter. The prince screamed, knowing it was the end for him, and was wrapped in energy. When the beam faded and everything settled down, Darkmatter was left a smaller form of himself. His mane no longer flowed, and was a much duller color. The timid form left of himself asked,

"I'm still here?"

Luna landed back on the floor of the castle and approached him, "I have removed your former self, and cured you of your torment."

Darkmatter stood up on his four legs, still a little shaky.

"Hooray!" cheered Pinkie Pie, taking a large leap in the air. "Darkmatter's not crazy anymore!"

The prince said to his sisters, "Perhaps I should take some time to recover, and then go tell Helios about Luna's return. I'm sure he'd be much more willing to speak to you once he's learned about it."

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea," agreed Celestia. "Darkmatter, I honestly felt very guilty about what I did to Luna all those years ago, but she came to forgive me. The question is, will you forgive me?"

Darkmatter walked carefully, and buried his head between his two sisters, "I forgive you, Celestia. It's so great just to be a family again."

The smaller prince then walked over to Limpwing and said, "Limpwing, while I go on my quest to find my brother, I want you to keep watch over The Domain for me. Please, tell them that they can visit Equestria any time they want, that we don't have to invade in order to be accepted."

"If it's ok, I'd actually like to keep working in Ponyville. Can I let one of your other officers take command?"

Darkmatter nodded, "If that's what you wish, then be the best resident of Ponyville you can be."

"I'll do my best!" she responded, smiling at his new attitude.

"And Techorse, Twilight," Darkmatter said as he turned to the two.

"I should have believed you when you said Luna made her own conscious choice to become good. Keep believing that we all have the ability to choose to be good."

Twilight answered, "Don't worry prince Darkmatter, we will." She turned to look back at the smiling expressions of her friends, "It's what we've always done!"

That afternoon, Darkmatter left on his mission to go find his brother's whereabouts. Princess Luna had a construction team sent to Oldcastle, and they built a fancy gate that was always left open, so that the residents of The Domain could visit anytime they wanted to. Celestia passed a law with the senate's approval that stated that there would be penalties for discriminating against the ponies for their flaws.

* * *

Now, two days later, Twilight and all her friends were back at Bob's diner. They were hoping they could talk about the whole mess they went through over a nice hot plate of food.

Techorse started off by saying, "Hey everypony, thanks for pulling me out of that. You're the best!"

"We did pretty well, but I have to admit, it was pretty close," said Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie Pie, "We almost ended up as wormhole food!"

"And golem target practice!" added Spike, still picking pebbles out of his scales.

Fluttershy said softly, "But we did cure Darkmatter, and that's very important."

"Not only that, but we did it without upsetting The Domain. Some of those ponies make the most beautiful works of art!" added Rarity with a happy tone.

Twilight wrapped up the conversation, "Most importantly, I think we've all made a good friend from this."

Limpwing walked up to the table, wearing her doo rag and apron. She acted as if the events of two days ago never really happened.

"Hi guys, good to see you back here! What can I get for you?"

"Well, let's see here," said Applejack, "I'll go first if ya don't mind."

"Not at all Applejack," said Limpwing, taking out her pen. After taking the orders of all her new friends, she turned around and headed back to the kitchen to give them to the chef. Once she halfway through the door, she back and watched her new friends talk and laugh.

"_At first, they were just ponies I had to spy on. But now, everything's different. They're really great friends!"_ she thought as she closed the door shut.

The End


End file.
